Boot from external Hard Disk Acer predator Helios 300 ( PH315-53 )

I have full-fledged windows installed on an external hard disk ( in another USB drive I have ubuntu installed ). I am trying to boot from it. I have enabled the F12 option along with setup the security password disabled the secure boot but still, it doesn't recognize the USB / external hard disk to boot when I press F12.
I have HP laptop from that I am able to boot from USB / external hard disk. The boot mode of my HP laptop is UEFI with CSM but the boot mode of my Acer is UEFI ( which I cannot change as its disabled ).
I am not sure why this is happening. I cannot re-install ubuntu or windows on an external hard disk as it contains data.

Can someone please help me here.....

System info:-

BIOS Version/Date    Insyde Corp. V2.04, 21-08-2021
BIOS Mode    UEFI
System Model    Predator PH315-53
Processor    Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10870H CPU @ 2.20GHz, 2208 Mhz, 8 Core(s), 16 Logical Processor(s)

Accepted answers

AnhEZ28

@himanshu08 because the booting is still for MBR so you will have to create an EFI partition with 100MB size and format as FAT32. You can follow these steps on the #2 post in this website:https://www.tenforums.com/installation-upgrade/52837-moving-recreating-efi-partition.html

All comments

Easwar

Hi @himanshu08,

Alter the BIOS sequence on your PC so your USB device is first. ...
Install the USB device on any USB port on your PC. ...
Restart your PC. ...
Watch for a “Press any key to boot from external device” message on your display. ...
Your PC should boot from your USB drive.

himanshu08

Hi, Easwar From where I can alter the BIOS sequence? The bootable USB is not recognized in BIOS. Do I have to do it from windows only or from BIOS?

Thanks

AnhEZ28

@himansh08 your external disk might be in MBR instead of GPT so the Acer laptop can't recognize it. You can use the HP to change the disk format to GPT and creating EFI boot with a 3rd party software so it won't lose the data on that disk.

himanshu08

@AnhEZ28 I am not sure about my windows bootable hard disk if it's MBR or GPT but I am quite sure that my bootable Ubuntu is GPT format. Regardless I will try what you are suggesting.
Can you suggest any free software that can do that? or any tutorial on how to change the MBR to GPT? And also is there any way to know if it's MBR format or GPT?

Thanks for help

himanshu08

@AnhEZ28

It is MBR partitioned, man you are good. Can you let me know how to change it to GPT if there is a proper way to do it without losing any data?

Kudos to you

himanshu08

@AnhEZ28

I have converted the partition from MBR to GPT and all the data are still there but it's still not recognized by Acer's laptop. And it seems I am unable to boot from my HP laptop now which was working fine.

Is there anything else I am suppose to do?

Commodore_1995#

Try creating a password in setsupervisorpassword and disable secureboot.

AnhEZ28

@himanshu08 because the booting is still for MBR so you will have to create an EFI partition with 100MB size and format as FAT32. You can follow these steps on the #2 post in this website:https://www.tenforums.com/installation-upgrade/52837-moving-recreating-efi-partition.html

himanshu08

@AnhEZ28 Man that freaking worked. Thanks a ton. I had lost all hope. Here are more detailed post regarding those commands ( if anyone needs in the future ).
https://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/241974-system-wont-boot-after-removing-second-hard-drive-efi.html#post2026366

The only thing I was confused about is how to get that SHIFT + F10 to work. I mean when to press it to get the cmd. But what I did instead of doing this while booting ( which is what was suggested in the post, if I understood correctly ), I booted into the windows of my laptop then connected the HDD ( which has the windows installed and wanted to add EFI partition to ) via USB then opened cmd in administrator mode ( not sure administrator mode is needed ) and ran all those commands. VOILA!! it's working.

Thanks a lot, man. You Rock!!

AnhEZ28

@himanshu08 glad that worked for you.

himanshu08

@AnhEZ28 I am facing another issue. Now when I boot from that external HDD from Acer the wifi LAN its not working. I have checked the Device manager thinking there might be some driver issue and it seems there is as under Network adapter wifi and Lan showing with a little warning symbol. I have tried installing the new driver ( which I downloaded from Acer website ) but its not working, its still showing as warning symbol.
Have tried uninstalling the driver, tried network reset as well but nothing seems to be working any idea?

AnhEZ28

@himanshu08 what are the error codes that those adapters have?

himanshu08

@AnhEZ28 Error code that I am getting is 56

AnhEZ28

@himanshu08 try to run network troubleshooter or network reset Network and Sharing Center khng th m trong Windows 10

Commodore_1995#

What is the model of the wireless network card?

himanshu08

@AnhEZ28 I have already tried Network reset and troubleshoot but no luck.

egydiocoelho here are my wifi card details Killer(R) Wi-Fi 6 AX1650i 160MHz Wireless Network Adapter (201NGW) and Ethernet details Killer E2600 Gigabit Ethernet Controller.